Publishing Your Dissertation Online: What’s a New Ph.D. to Do? - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Early this week, the American Historical Association (AHA) released a controversial statement that strongly advised graduate programs and libraries to adopt a policy allowing the embargoing of the publication of completed dissertations online for up to six years. The statement has generated much praise and much criticism. Supporters of the statement argue that it protects junior authors, given that in the current academic climate a completed, published, single-authored monograph continues to be the standard for tenure and promotion in fields like history. Opponents of the statement counter with several arguments: that making the dissertation research public, rather than keeping it embargoed for years, allows the junior scholar to gain credit for his or her work; that the revision necessary to turn a dissertation into a book makes the two significantly different scholarly works; and finally, that the AHA should actively consider rethinking the book as a gold standard for advancement. In the midst of all of this, I decided to openly publish my 2008 doctoral dissertation, Inventing Malayanness: Race, Education and Englishness in Colonial Malaya online, under a Creative Commons license ... Let me state up front that I do not disagree with the AHA statement. I have heard of a number of cases where people have been denied book contracts because their dissertation is available online, which can be potentially disastrous if one requires a book for tenure at their institution. Whether or not a book is the best marker of tenure and promotion in humanities fields is an important and needed conversation to have. However, I cannot determine standards for advancement at all institutions, and so I would advise anyone who is considering making their dissertation available online to consider what they might need from their dissertation in their professional future. Through the many interviews I have conducted with presses and libraries in my 'Digital Challenges to Academic Publishing' series here at ProfHacker, I have learned that there is no single industry standard or singular point of view for what makes things publishable or profitable. For example, while one acquisitions editor might look at a highly downloaded dissertation as a good indication of a market for a book, another editor look at the exact same dissertation and and decide that the availability of an online dissertation will compete with–and hurt sales of–any book that grows out of it.  To me, all of this means that whether or not you choose to publish your dissertation online is a decision that you should be free to make on an individual basis.  So why did I choose to put my dissertation online? ...  [1] I have already placed for publication two articles from chapters of my dissertation.  [2] Because my current book manuscript diverges significantly from my dissertation, the online version of the latter will not compete with the former.  [3] I received tenure and promotion at Richard Stockton College a few months ago (hooray!), which means that I do not need my monograph to be published as urgently as I might in different circumstances. [4] I was hopeful that this might encourage more people to read my research and to use it in their own work. There is a very small market for research that is narrowly focused on Malaysia and Singapore, and many of the books available on the international market are extremely expensive. I know from personal experience that texts which are freely available online are much more likely to be read (and referenced) than texts which are buried behind expensive paywalls.  If you would like to publish your dissertation online, you have several options. Here are a few (among many):   [1] One option could be your campus’ own institutional repository, which might offer open access to your dissertation once you have signed a few permissions forms. Check with your campus library to find out if this is possible. [2] Figshare.com is especially attractive because it provides you with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which is a digital version of an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), effectively 'publishing' your work for you. Furthermore, Figshare is compatible with citation managers like Zotero, Refworks, and Endnote. [3] Scribd.com has the most attractive reading interface in my opinion, and processes your dissertation into sections that make it easy for a reader to page through your text. Scribd also allows you the option to hide a portion of your dissertation from full view and to sell the full version at a price that you set (I chose the option to make my dissertation fully viewable online but to require users to pay 2.99 to download a copy for offline use). [4] Academia.edu bases its platform on Scribd.c